The wrist watch has proved itself a very practical, workable and, even, an ornamental device to the point that its popularity makes it virtually a universal appliance owned and worn by everyone. It has been refined to the highest imaginable state of precision in the form of thermometers and movements and the case has been refined to the finest expression of the jeweler's art. Unfortunately, there are many people who with the refinement in the appearance of the wrist watch lose the ability to read it, not because of the watch, but, simply, their vision loses acuity and the nominal markings, or the non-markings, in the faces of the more stylish watches are invisible to them. This has not been cured by the digital watches, because the problem is one of visibility and the loss of vision is not connected with the watch.
By translating the time signal to an audible one it is possible to give a time signal to the ear. This is done in architectual monuments and in some monuments to the watchmaker's art in the form of large grandfather type clocks. That is, the time signal is in terms of a ring and coded time signal which occurs at each quarter hour. Thus, the blind person after once observing the hour through the audible sounding of the bell can follow the time to within 15 minutes.
No device, however, exists in the art, particularly no device of wrist watch size exists in the art which would provide the user with an audible readout.
It is accordingly a basic object of this invention to provide a small personal timepiece for use by an individual which will tell the time audibly on demand to the nearest minute.
It is another object of the invention to provide a wrist watch in which the time readout is in the form of a spoken audible signal, available on demand by the user.
It is another object of the invention to provide a timepiece of a form such that it can be worn as part of a hearing aid and activated merely by finger pressure to give the user a time reading.
It is another object of the invention to provide a timepiece in form such that it can be used as tie tack, or pen, to give the time audibly on demand by the user, or wearer.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and in part appear hereinafter.